The IT crowd are sexy and they know it

BRUCE Kerr always knew the IT crowd were a sexy bunch, and now we have the proof behind one of the industry's best kept secrets.

The Byte me columnist and Kerr IT Solutions owner wholeheartedly agrees with a recent EliteSingles study, which found IT guys and girls ranked themselves ahead of traditionally "hotter" occupations such as secretaries, physiotherapists, pilots, chefs and nurses.

Top reasons why IT is sexy:
Kerr IT Solutions team members Bruce Kerr, Tim New and Ray Wehlow weigh in on why IT deserves a place in the list of top 10 Aussie jobs.

Though not making it into the top 10 sexiest Aussie jobs list themselves, Bruce - a bachelor - says it is only a matter of time before everyone looking for love clues on to what techies have to offer.

"By the nature of our profession we have to be understanding, sensitive, we have to have a great eye for detail and we get to be very helpful," Bruce said. "There's also less of a stigma around what we do these days," fellow IT professional David Garett added.

"Less stereotyping over what people who work with technology are meant to be like, you are not just put into a little pigeon hole. "While I am wearing glasses I am not some geek who doesn't have any social skills."

After trawling through more than 1000 different jobs, it is no surprise a vocation synonymous with sex appeal came out in pole position. Here's the leader board:

Model

Interior Decorator

Entrepreneur

Real Estate Agent

Personal Trainer

Interior Designer

Coach

Business Executive

Marketing Professional

Sales & Accounts Manager

The study identified the most desirable singles by analysing the correlation between users' "sexiness" (ranked on a self-assessment scale from one to seven) and their occupation - IT professionals also scored well above average on intelligence parameters.

The Kerr Solutions team are a 50/50 split of bachelors and happily taken men, but Bruce believes a shift in popular opinion may soon see brainy fellas like himself, and single-employee Tim New, in hot demand.

"Shows like Beauty and the Geek help people realise that it is a growing sphere and we are not all dead boring," Bruce said.

"And we don't all live in our mum's basement until we are 45, most of us are married, or engaged or have kids," a happily married Ray Wehlow said.

But Ray may find himself the exception in his profession, with the study - pooling data from 87,000 Australians registered with the EliteSingles dating site - revealing IT workers ranked under par on their ability to stay faithful, their desire to start a family and their ability to make other's laugh.

"Of course we're sexy, just ask us" - the Kerr Solutions team weigh in on why IT is sexy:

Anyone dealing with IT all the time needs to be patient and even tempered (cranky is never sexy).

We age well as we spend significant parts of our working day out of the sun.

we keep a secret - we have to when dealing with sensitive data.

Due to the above point, women confide in us with their probelms, however getting a woman to let you fix a problem is yet another story.

We are great at stress relief - we delete people's IT problems which have become the number-one source of stress in the modern world.

If things don't work out, always keep us as friends - we can help with your online dating profile to find the other Mr Right

Our keyboard and mouse skills dictate we have very articulate hands

we stay in touch with world events so we make great conversationalists

we are very unlikely to make you watch Friday night footy (Origin exempted)